Perhaps it's become obvious to you that I enjoy designing in a square format. I learned that I liked the challenge of defying the square pictorial space when I was doing my thesis work in the last year at MICA. However, this image was swirling around in my head a full year after I’d finished the MFA program but I was still thinking in square design and still mulling over the fairy tales that provided me with so much fodder for my content.

What happens when you imagine the witch, Baba Yaga, as a normal elderly person behaving in predictable ways? So what does she do with her down time between luring children to her hut and fattening them up to eat? I imagined that she might tear around the forest on her chicken-legged hut, house dress flapping, just for the fun of it. Perhaps she has just a touch of gout in her joints and is looking for some herbs for a tincture, but a bit of fun will certainly take her mind off the painful inflammation. I imagined the state of her poor little house, creaking and groaning under the stress.

For a number of years, I was raised by grandparents and witnessed some of the challenges that older persons deal with on a daily basis. My grandpop had gout which, on occasion, was bad enough to cause him to be bedridden. But what didn’t diminish was his general delight in joyful activities, in groups or in personal pursuits. Joy remains even in old age. Even if you’re a cannibalistic psychopath.

Other than wanting to humanize Baba Yaga a bit, I was also interested in portraying an older person in a fantasy image. There’s the bearded Magician types, and the slender and elegant female Elderfolk, but Baba Yaga defies that prescription; she’s fat and toothless, with a crazy look in her eye. What does it say that when your older relatives housesit for you and they take this art off the main wall and place it in a darkened corner of the room for the duration of their stay?

What are your thoughts? Have you any comments to add or questions about the work? Start a conversation. :)